Virtual IPE simulations
During the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty created several interprofessional clinical simulations that leveraged gaming technology, virtual escape rooms, and 360-degree virtual environments.
Interprofessional Education
At USAHS, we’re developing healthcare practitioners who are skilled at communicating and collaborating harmoniously with team members from other disciplines. To that end, we have embraced interprofessional education (IPE) and have integrated IPE coursework and clinical simulation activities across our programs.
What is the advantage of interprofessional education?
Today’s patients often have complex problems that need attention from practitioners across disciplines. At USAHS, we embrace interprofessional education across all our health sciences disciplines. You will have the opportunity to learn in our Centers for Innovative Clinical Practice alongside students and faculty from physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and nursing in simulated environments to learn how to collaboratively care for patients and clients.
What is interprofessional education?
According to the World Health Organization, interprofessional education is a style of teaching in which “two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.”World Health Organization (WHO), “Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.” Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, 2010.
In our IPE courses and activities, students practice delivering a holistic, collaborative approach to safe healthcare. Our students often remark that the most important thing they learn from their IPE courses is how to speak a common language free of discipline-specific terminologies.Jordan Utley et al., Interprofessional Education and Collaboration: An Evidence-Based Approach to Optimizing Health Care. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 2020. It also helps our students prepare to practice in the real world—or expand their skillset as professionals.
How Does IPE Work at USAHS?
IPE is core to our teaching methodology at USAHS. We have incorporated IPE, and we are expanding its reach across all University programs, through the following means:
Curricula
IPE aspects are integrated within each program, whether in didactic coursework, clinical simulations, or clinical immersion sessions (depending on the program). Activities center around four core competencies defined by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC). They are scaffolded so that students’ skills and knowledge build in a logical sequence.
Simulation
Our state-of-the-art clinical simulation centers give students the chance to practice interprofessional teamwork with their peers in other healthcare disciplines. For example, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy students collaborate to treat patients within a simulated real-life professional and physical environment.
Faculty
Among the USAHS faculty are several champions who are passionate about IPE and who have spearheaded its success within the University. Our faculty are in the exciting position to influence the future of healthcare through the IPE activities they create. And they have made USAHS a thought leader within the space of interprofessional learning through simulation.
See more innovations
Discover the leading edge USAHS provides to your development.
EdTech Tools
Our leading-edge EdTech tools include 3D printers, anatomage tables, rehabilitation/exercise machines, driving simulators, robotics, and more.
Clinical Simulation Labs
In our state-of-the-art simulation laboratories, you’ll practice patient interactions in simulated hospital and home environments, using real clinical and adaptive equipment.
Modern Learning Spaces
Our classrooms and study spaces are designed to optimize collaboration. Our wet and dry anatomy labs feature innovative digital and analog learning tools.
Dynamic Blended Learning
Blended learning merges digitally delivered coursework together with immersive on-campus experiences and clinical fieldwork.
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